Overspending by second Govt dept admitted

Press, 15 April 1988, Page 1

Overspending by second Govt dept admitted

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

A second Government department ; — the Ministry of Transport — has been identified as having overspent its budget for 1987-88. This follows on the earlier discovery (“The Press,” April 8) that the Conservation Department had overspent about $9 million.

Both departments were re-

buked publicly yesterday by the Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, in an address to the licensing Trusts Association in Auckland. j . He said there was Ino place in the economy for organisations and businesses that were not | efficient, responsive! and adapt- I able to change. “The same message applies to the Government’s own departments,” Mr Douglas said. “If departments as diverse as Conservation or Transport cannot

put into place and manage systems which allow them to control their expenditure, they put in jeopardy both their own future and mission, and the Government’s attainment of its fiscal target.”) The Minister of Transport, Mr Jeffries, acknowledged last evening there had been over-expendi-ture by his department It had been about $500,000, he said, and partly related to unexpected costs in turning the de-

partment’s Civil Aviation Division into the I Airways Corporation. I r I A- representative of tt e Minister of Conservation, Ms Clark, denied that over-expenditure was of the order of $9 millionas reported,! and insisted it was only half that! But both the Treasury and departmental officers said that the $9 million figure still seemed to be about right. I